GET A JOB
The 100,000 circulation Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, about an hour's drive from Sonora, Mexico, seeks a reporter to write stories on immigration, politics, social issues and other aspects of border life. At least three years experience at a daily paper and a year covering border-related issues are required, as is proficiency in Spanish. Send résumé, cover letter and work samples to metro editor Hipolito R. Corella, Arizona Daily Star, P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, Ariz. 85726-6807. ...
Wal-Mart seeks a corporate communications senior manager in the Bentonville, Ark., home office. At least seven years experience with a combination of experience in communication and PR required. Send writing samples and résumé to ryan.loken@wal-mart.com.
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NEW MEMBERS
IABC ... Cheryl Hart, Hart Marketing
SPJ ... Dave Koger ... Robert Hart, Belo Interactive
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COMINGS & GOINGS
Promotions ... at the S-T: Paul Moseley, to photo director in the Northeast newsroom ... Ian McVea, to photo director in the Arlington newsroom ... Bruce Maxwell, to deputy photo director in the Arlington newsroom
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Heather Senter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
As I prepare to hand over the president's duties to Holly Ellman, I want to take a step back and evaluate the year. Our board started with four goals. We finished with four goals accomplished -- and then some.
* Establish a Masters Special Interest Group targeted at seasoned pros with 15-plus years experience or APR designation. Andra Bennett, APR, took the charge and now leads 15 or so practitioners who regularly meet over dinner (and drinks). The group continues to grow, and Andra will chair it again next year.
* Emphasize diversity. It's a national PRSA priority, and one of ours, too. We focused an entire month, including a program on diversity issues. Our speaker, Dora Tovar, was so enticed by our chapter that she transfered her membership from Dallas. She's working on a follow-up program for 2006.
* Increase our chapter's APRs. With national making the APR exam more convenient, including dropping the minimum five years work experience required to take it, we have no excuse. Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA, reports that one of our members has passed the readiness review and is ready to take the written examination.
* Provide value to our members. Lisa Fellers did an excellent job working with DFW Communicators on a Metroplex-wide job bank. Check it out at dfwcommunicators.com. Our SIG leaders -- Chris Smith (Education), Kelly Strzinek (Health Care), Nancy Farrar and Sandra Brodnicki (Independent Practitioners), Phil Beckman (Nu Pros) and Andra Bennett (Masters) -- have spent the year scheduling media panels, teleseminars and networking events. Each group has seen a tremendous response. Is there value here? You be the judge.
With all this activity, you'd expect membership to be up, and it is -- 15 percent. Kudos to Holly Ellman for an outstanding year of recruiting members and helping them stay involved. Our numbers now top 165. And the members-only media panel that Holly planned last month was a huge success. We hope to make it an annual event.
We also made progress on other fronts. Kelly Keenum led the revamp of our Web site, fortworthprsa.org. We're now using Cvent, with which members can pay for meetings online using a credit card (paying at the meeting remains an option). And board member Bill Lawrence, APR (and now Fellow PRSA), was appointed to the PRSA College of Fellows.
Every other board member has helped keep this machine running, and without them and their countless volunteer hours, this chapter would not be possible. Thank you so much, board members and members, for making this year a success.
Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth
Krista Simmons, executive editor of the Fort Worth Business Press, told a festive pre-Thanksgiving crowd Nov. 22 how to get media attention for a company or event. As an ex-PR professional, she brought a unique perspective to the topic. Also joining us was past IABC international chairman and Katrina evacuee Charles Pizzo.
Join us from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, for the JPS book benefit and combined IABC/PRSA/SPJ/ABCDEFG barbecue-and-beer holiday gathering in the Coors Distributing Co. hospitality room. Cost is $15 or the equivalent in new or good-condition-used children's books for the JPS Health Network children's library. RSVP to mkpirtle@yahoo.com.
Last month we introduced you to new members Kathleen Pai at Lockheed Martin and Jeff Posey with Carter & Burgess. The month meet Cheryl Hart, the heart of Hart Marketing. Know folks who would like information on IABC membership? Have them contact membership VP Paul Sturiale at paulsturiale@yahoo.com.
There's no regular meeting in December. Our next luncheon meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Petroleum Club. Stay tuned for details.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Glenn Mitchell was smarter than I am, better looking, wider read and hipper. Infinitely more hip. Yet on those rare occasions when we were together, he never acted like he knew it. With Glenn, he was never the story -- you were the story. Maybe that's what made him such an exceptional interviewer. Surely it contributed to him being such an exceptional person. He died Nov. 20 at age 55, leaving a family of KERA/90.1 FM listeners -- he was a talk-radio mainstay at the station since it signed on in 1974 -- as loyal as any blood relatives. "These days, so many people have agendas and axes to grind and big egos. Glenn took great pride in his work, but he did it without ego," David Marquis, who had known Glenn for 25 years, said in an Ed Bark Dallas Morning News remembrance. Marquis called his friend "the most fair and open-minded journalist I ever met": "He would bring on good guests, ask good questions and then step out of the way and let them answer. He didn't put himself first. He put knowledge first." Bob Ray Sanders in his Star-Telegram column emphasized how "Glenn was never out to show how smart he was or hog the attention. His job was to focus on his guests and their ideas; to help educate and, yes, entertain a large listening audience; to be that calming, courteous and competent voice in the wilderness." Glenn and Susan Krasnow were wed in the backyard of their Dallas home, and I had the privilege of attending. Part traditional ceremony, part Woodstock and part performance art, the evening was eclectic, meaningful, imaginative and fun. I recall Glenn working the crowd, ensuring that everyone was welcomed and at ease. Because he was never the story. You were. ...
We appreciate David Carlson making a 24-hour fly-in to be with us at Joe T. Garcia's. The tradition is for each new national SPJ president to make his first official appearance at the Fort Worth professional chapter. The tradition had lapsed, and Dave has us back on track. For his trouble, he got the branding iron and the enchilada plate. ...
A hearty welcome to five -- five! -- new advertisers. The Robert Hart Studio, Jesse Hornbuckle Photography, the Balcom Agency, The Collegian at Tarrant County Community College and The Keller Citizen all see value in being in the eChaser ad rail. And they're right.
Closing words, the angles of war: "I like guys who got five deferments and have never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done." -- U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., who spent 37 years in the Marine Corps, earning the Bronze Star, two purple hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and who in November called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq ... "All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride." -- Bertrand Russell on World War I ... "Anti-war books are as likely to stop war as anti-glacier books are to stop glaciers." -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
